Saturday, March 19, 2016

A Weekend in Paris

This post is way, way overdue but in my defense, I've been drowning in midterms. I'm officially DONE now- until finals anyway- so I'm trying to catch up on blogging. I recently visited my friend Julia who's studying abroad at NYU Paris and had an amazing time being reunited in the prettiest city in Europe. Together with our friend (and fellow Kappa) Emily as well as Emily's friend from home, we split our trip into two parts. Day 1was essentially what Julia so aptly called 'the Instagram tour of Paris' aka we went to all the major landmarks and museums in a single, exhaustingly impressive outing.

^I'm 10000000% obsessed with this picture because of how perfect it is, I have no shame. The weather reports told us to expect cloudy skies and even rain so I'm still amazed at how we got a picture with lighting this damn good!! Real talk, this is probably the best photo I'm ever going to have.

Visiting Paris immediately had me questioning if studying abroad at London had been the right choice. The food is delicious (and SO MUCH CHEAPER than London) (pounds are the worst), the sights beautiful, and you just feel like you're somewhere completely European. London's similarity to New York is great but it also means it doesn't always feel quite as magical as Paris does. I tried escargot and actually loved it (nobody is more surprised than me) and when I head back to Paris in May for Niyousha's birthday weekend, I will definitely be ordering a platter of escargot at every meal (no seriously, it's that good).

Julia was a lovely hostess (thanks again for hosting us!!) and I loved being able to re-experience Paris with two amazing Kappas. We went to the Eiffel Tower, the Arc de Triomphe, Notre Dame, the Louvre (where I had the time of my life using Face Swap on Snapchat with all the artwork), and had an incredible dinner at a cozy restaurant in the Latin Quarter. We also stopped by Laduree because macarons.

The first time (and last time) I went to Paris was on a post graduation trip in high school and so it was a little more than disconcerting to be back and experiencing everything in such a different way. I've been realizing more and more how much I've grown up and this trip felt significant in a way I'm still trying to understand. I think I've just been having a lot of moments lately where I think "I'm so happy to be alive" and it really throws me off because I spent such a long time hurting and being sad. And I don't know if I'm completely okay now, it's definitely not like I can say "I'm fixed now! I'm all better", you know? But I feel more whole than I have in a long time and I'm really thankful for that.

(gotta throw what we know #KKG)

As cheesy as this may sound, it's a really good feeling to be moving forward and seeing so much of the world after being stuck for such a long time. Paris was beautiful and exactly the place I needed to re-experience. We also went to Disney the next day, which was even more fun- I'm actually going to get started on writing about that right now so expect a new post soon. À bientôt!